As an off-court money-making machine, Jeremy Lin the New York Knick had “pre-Tiger Woods scandal earning potential,” at least one prominent Manhattan public relations executive contends.

Ronn Torossian, CEO and president of a top-25 public relations firm, 5W, called Lin “a marketing dream come true” in an interview Wednesday — assuming, of course, he continues to deliver the goods on the court. But Torossian thinks Lin will have to raise the bar much higher in a Rockets jersey to match the riches he could have found playing on Broadway.

“Houston’s not New York,” Torossian said. “He can do well as a marketer in Houston but not as well as he could have done in New York.”

Others, however, contend the disparity isn’t as great as might be assumed, thanks to Lin’s Chinese ancestry and Houston’s unique synergy with the Asian market after Yao Ming. The 7-6 Yao’s fragile feet kept him from fully fulfilling his promise as a global superstar, but the six-time NBA All-Star is still China’s greatest basketball player ever, and he accomplished enough to put his adopted city on the map in the world’s most populous country.

Value should climb

Although Yao retired about a year ago after multiple surgeries and rehabs, there no doubt remain millions of residual Rockets fans from Beijing to Guangzhou, making it easier for Rockets owner Leslie Alexander to sign off on a contract that many, even hopeful Houstonians, see as being a bit over the top.

Kenneth Wisnefski is the brand strategist and Founder/CEO of WebiMax, an international Internet marketing company. He thinks “the second phase of the Lin brand, moving beyond the feel-good and overnight-sensation notion,” should prove highly lucrative, never mind his change of address.

“I expect his value on and off court to climb as endorsement opportunities should rise,” the New York-based Wisnefski said. “We know (the Houston) area is receptive, given the success of Yao Ming. In addition, the inroads that were developed with Yao Ming in the international Asian market can carry over and impact Jeremy Lin’s brand recognition.”

Lin recently hired Washington lawyer James L. Tanner to handle contract negotiations and endorsements. Tanner, who represents ex-Rocket Shane Battier, Tim Duncan and Grant Hill, did not respond to either a call or an email seeking comment. Rockets personnel also were said to be reluctant to discuss the marketing impact of acquiring Lin, lest people think he was signed for that reason and not for his basketball skills.

They did, however, happily announce that in the first 18 hours after they announced Lin was coming, they had picked up more than 3,000 new Twitter followers and 10,000 new “likes” on Facebook. Season-ticket sales? That information wasn’t yet available.

Lin would have needed to pick up at least where he left off after knee surgery cut short his Knicks fairy tale to have kept the ATM open in New York, and most everyone appears to agree with Terossian that a consistently high level of performance is going to be far more imperative once his Rockets do-over launches. In other words, Lin will have to prove to be an even better player as a Rocket than he would had to have been as a Knick to keep the crazy buzz alive.

Wait and see?

Mark Ippolito, president and general counsel of Burns Entertainment and Sports Marketing, told Bloomberg news: “If I was a marketer thinking about using Jeremy, I would maybe wait and see how this plays out now. If he stays healthy, however, Houston’s lack of other stars might actually allow him more time with the ball and a better shot at lasting stardom.”

Also, his life here won’t be lived in a fishbowl — or shark tank — like New York.

“He can probably go out on a date there without being hounded by paparazzi,” Torossian said. “Houston’s a much easier city for him to blossom and mature in. Maybe he’ll be able to focus on basketball in Houston and be less distracted.”

At the same time, the pressure on Lin the point guard has increased exponentially. As Torossian pointed out, “(With his new contract), he’s no longer the underdog. The rules change when you’re not the underdog anymore.”

Business as usual

Nothing had outwardly changed at Toyota Center on a sultry Wednesday morning on the first day of Lin’s second chapter as a Rocket. It was business as usual when the ticket office opened at 9 a.m., meaning there wasn’t a Lin-maniac in sight. A stage had been set up on the main plaza, but it was for a Toyota event, not to kick off a Lin celebration.

Lin-sanity? No, for the moment, Lin-normality, although Lin jerseys can be pre-ordered on the team’s website, www.rockets.com. The Rockets hadn’t been prescient enough — or better, confident enough — that the Knicks would fold to have speculatively made up a bunch in advance.

“It will take a few days before we see a lot going on,” predicted Nelson Luis, the team’s media relations director. “That’s the way it was when we drafted Yao.”

But Tad Brown, the Rockets’ chief executive officer, wrote in an email Wednesday night: “Based on just rumors of Jeremy coming to the Rockets, we’ve sold the most season tickets of any team in the league. At 12:01 (a.m. Wednesday) we started selling Lin jerseys, which was the time we were certain Jeremy would in fact be a Rocket. There are certain rules all teams should follow that are collectively bargained, and we decided to follow those in this situation.”

Arguably the most remarkable aspect of Lin’s abrupt departure from New York is the fact that there wasn’t vitriol spewing from every bandwidth and printing press across the three-state area. Instead, most New Yorkers seem in a way happy for him and even for the Knicks. The fans genuinely liked Lin the person while wholeheartedly embracing his outrageous rags-to-riches story.

But there’s also a measure of relief the team didn’t spend $25 million on a player with what amounts to a 25-game NBA résumé.

No N.Y. backlash

“There has been no brutal backlash like you’d expect,” said Torossian, who describes himself as a typically passionate longtime New York sports fan and has represented several Knicks in marketing ventures over the years.

“You can imagine the headlines we might have seen,” he said. “But look, this kid got a lot of money (from the Rockets). People don’t think the Knicks lost Jeremy Lin. They’re not saying, ‘Wow, the Knicks should have gone after him harder.’ People here realize this is big business. They understand.”

Torossian added: “It’s impossible not to like Jeremy Lin. He’s a good, hard-working person, and he looks like the boy next door. What father would not want his son to grow up to be Jeremy Lin? He’s 6-3, Harvard-educated, an NBA star, but humble and approachable. It was such a nice, feel-good story. I mean, the guy slept on his friend’s couch when he first got here.

“He brought tremendous energy to the city, and as a New Yorker, I’ll miss him.”